The present invention relates to shock and vibration mounting systems and, more particularly to a shock and vibration isolation mounting apparatus for releasably mounting a box-like article such as a computer disk drive between two opposed surfaces and comprising two pair of mounting assemblies for attaching to the article and to respective ones of the opposed surfaces wherein one of the pair of mounting assemblies is disposed below the article with the elastomeric members thereof in compression and the other of the pair of mounting assemblies is disposed above the article with the elastomeric members thereof in tension, and wherein, each of the mounting assemblies comprises, a first elongated rigid channel member being U-shaped in cross section and comprising a base separating a pair of parallel spaced sides, the first channel member having a transverse member at one end perpendicular to both the base and the sides, the transverse member having a bore therethrough, the first channel member including means for attaching the first channel member to the disk drive; a second elongated rigid channel member also being U-shaped in cross section and comprising a base separating a pair of parallel spaced sides, the second channel member also having a transverse member at one end perpendicular to both the base and the sides, the transverse member having a threaded bore therethrough, the second channel member being sized to slidably fit within the first channel member; threaded bolt means having a head on one end for passing through the bore of the first channel member and threadedly engaging the threaded bore of the second channel member and pulling the transverse members towards one another, the bolt means being a spring-loaded captive bolt carried by the transverse member of the first channel member; and, first and second elastomeric members carried by the second channel member on the base between the sides and adjacent respective ends, the elastomeric members each including means for attaching the second channel member to the adjacent surface and comprising a captive bolt carried perpendicular to the base; the ends of the first, and second channel members opposite the transverse members including engagable interactive means for drawing the ends together and for holding them tightly together as the threaded bolt means pulls the transverse members towards one another, those means comprising the ends of the sides of the first channel member angling at about 45.degree. back towards the base and the ends of the sides of the second channel member including outward facing tabs angling at about 45.degree. back towards the base so that as the threaded bolt means pulls the transverse members towards one another the angled ends of the first channel member engage respective ones of the tabs of the the second channel member and wedgedly force the bases of the first and second channel members tightly towards one another.
While some portions of a computer are relatively shock insensitive, others can be severely damaged by excessive shock. In particular, mass storage drives, such as disk drives, include read/write heads mounted on the ends of lightweight arms, which can be adjacent the easily damaged magnetic surface of the disks therein at the time a shock wave is transferred into the drive. So-called "crashing" of the heads into the magnetic surface can cause catastrophic and unrepairable damage to the disk.
In some instances, shock and vibration isolation has been provided by using shock casters such as those indicated as 10 on the computer 12 of FIG. 1. With the disk drive 14 hard mounted to the chassis of the computer, any shock or vibration induced into the computer 12 is passed directly into the disk drive 14. Thus, with the prior art system of FIG. 1, any shock to the computer 12 itself and not to the other side of the shock casters 10 is not even affected by the shock casters 10. Moreover, since a given computer system can vary in weight by more than 20%, and because most shock casters are sized to meet the heaviest needs, the shock casters may end up actually amplifying shock and vibration inputs to the computer chassis with the lightest configurations. In some factory environments, shock isolated floors are even installed to isolate larger commercial sized computers.
Even where shock absorbing feet 16 are mounted between the chassis of the computer 12 and the drive 14, or the like, as shown in FIG. 2, there are many problems; not the least of which is the inability to install and remove the drive. For example, one can appreciate that in an installation such as that shown in simplified form in FIG. 2, with shock absorbing feet 16 at each of the corners of the base of the drive 14 for complete support, there must be access from various points in order to install or remove the drive 14. If shock isolation is to be optimized for each drive, the feet 16 must be associated therewith.
FIG. 3 depicts in simplified form the shocks that must be considered in an optimized mounting system. There are front to back forces as indicated by the arrow 18; side to side forces as indicated by the arrow 20; and vertical forces as indicated by the arrow 22.
Wherefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a manner of shock and vibration mounting a computer disk drive, or the like, to a computer chassis which optimally accounts for all the possible shock and vibration force vectors.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a manner of shock and vibration mounting a computer disk drive, or the like, to a computer chassis which permits changing the characteristics of the mounting to adapt to the weight of different drives.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a manner of shock and vibration mounting a computer disk drive, or the like, to a computer chassis which permits the drive to be quickly and easily inserted or removed with access from only one side.